Attention is directed to two articles by the inventors, entitled "Electrochemical Behavior of a Surface-Confined Naphthoquinone Derivative . . . " Vol. 104, No. 21, Journal of the American Chemical Society, pp. 5786-5788 (1982) and "Mediated Electrochemical Reduction of Oxygen to Hydrogen Peroxide . . . ", Vol. 105, No. 17, Journal of the American Chemical Society, pp. 5594-5600 (1983); the teachings of both these articles are incorporated herein by reference.
Hydrogen peroxide production is a major speciality chemical operation in the United States and abroad. It is used as an oxidizing agent, bleach and, in dilute solutions, as an antiseptic. Although the constituent elements of hydroperoxide are simply hydrogen and oxygen, it has proven extremely difficult to manufacture H.sub.2 O.sub.2 directly from O.sub.2 and H.sub.2 because water (H.sub.2 O) is by far the preferred reaction.
Typical reactions for producing hydrogen peroxide involve the anodic oxidation of sulfuric acid or sulfates to form peroxidic sulfuric acid or peroxidisulfates which then can be split hydrolytically at elevated temperatures to yield hydrogen peroxide recoverable by vacuum distillation. Such processes are energy-intensive and, at least, potentially hazardous due to the materials and operating conditions.
In other reactions, quinone-derivatives have been employed as catalysts for the reduction of molecular oxygen to hydrogen peroxide. In such methods the quinone is first hydrogenated and then exposed to oxygen to yield hydrogen peroxide. However, there are a number of disadvantages to this technique; first, hydrogenation of the quinone does not always yield the dihydroxy-derivative. Secondly, the hydrogen peroxide must be separated from the solvent and, finally, the quinone catalysts themselves tend to break down after repeated cycling.
There exists a need for simpler, more effective catalysts and methods for the production of hydrogen peroxide. Stable catalysts which retain their activity over repeated cycling would satisfy long-felt needs in the industry. Likewise, methods of production that permitted high yields of hydrogen peroxide free of electrolyte contamination would be most useful in this field.